Systems and methods for updating search results based on a conversation

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein for updating search results based on a user&#39;s comment or a conversation among users using a media guidance application. A set of search results may be presented to a user or users. Comments or a conversation about the search results may be analyzed by the media guidance application. Selected comments by a user determined to have a greater weight may be used to update the search results.

BACKGROUND

Media may be accessed using a media guidance application. Requests formedia may be made in many ways. As media viewers come to rely onpersonal home assistant devices for controlling household devices,viewers may begin seeking access to media through the same personal homeassistant devices. In some scenarios, there may be multiple andoverlapping requests that may be received at a personal home assistantdevice that can be difficult to decipher and prioritize. Providingsuitable choices to a viewer in response to requests will improve aviewer's media viewing experience.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are described for facilitating a searchfor a media asset based on a conversation. In particular, theconversation may be based on search results and used to update thesearch results. When a viewer wishes to access a media asset, the viewermay request that a search for a suitable media asset be performed by amedia guidance application. Generally speaking, such a search may beperformed when a viewer has some sense of what he or she wants to find,or the viewer may request a recommendation that may be based on aviewer's viewing history, or some other basis. In these scenarios, theviewer may initiate a request for a media search using conventionaltechniques such as selecting media categories or entering search terms,etc. An initial set of search results may be presented to the viewer andthe viewer may have some opinions about or reactions to the results. Insome environments, a viewer may select a result and then access themedia asset. In other scenarios, the viewer may request a further searchbased on some related or completely different criterion. In each ofthese situations, the viewer takes an affirmative step to either accessmedia or perform another search. It would be helpful to the viewer,however, for the media guidance application to update the search resultswith additional or incremental information, particularly if there ismore than one viewer and each has certain opinions about the searchresults. Updating the search results using all of the comments andopinions in a conversation may lead to results that are not interestingor relevant to the users because the opinions may differ. Interpretingand filtering the conversation and opinions by way of prioritizing aviewer and then selecting a prioritized viewer's comments for use inupdating the search results may improve the quality of the results.Furthermore, prioritizing a viewer and integrating elements of aconversation and a user profile for the participants in the conversationmay help fine tune media search results.

In an example, if a set of media search results are presented to twopeople, a conversation may ensue in which the people may discuss therelative merits of the results. A household assistant device may beactivated to a listening mode and may be used to monitor theconversation and provide an update to the search results as theconversation occurs and develops, for example, iteratively, as theconversation continues. For example, a household assistant device, suchas an Amazon Echo, a Google Home, an Apple HomePod or another assistantdevice, may be activated to be in a listening mode. The assistant devicemay be connected to a home network and in communication with otherdevices, such as a media guidance application, a computer or processor,that in combination may provide the functionality described herein, orany of the devices may be capable of providing the features andfunctionality described herein separately. A media viewer or viewers mayinitiate a search for media using the home assistant device or using amedia guidance application and then be presented with search results.The viewers may review the results and may make some comments on theresults which may be in the form of a conversation or statement that iscaptured and analyzed by the home assistant device and used as a basisfor updating the search results. In some scenarios, only one viewer mayhave comments about the results and the comments of the viewer may beused to update the search results using speech recognition andspeech-to-text techniques to obtain text terms via the home assistantdevice for the media guidance application to update the search results.If there is more than one viewer seeking to access media the results maybe discussed between the viewers and a conversation about the resultsmay be captured by the home assistant device and used as a basis forupdating the search results.

When there is more than one viewer discussing search results, theconversation and comments can be confusing to analyze when the mediaguidance application needs to harmonize comments that may conflict or beunrelated. One way to improve the quality of the updated results is toprioritize viewers and the words spoken by the viewers. For example, aviewer that makes a statement, “you decide” may indicate that the otherviewer's statements should be weighted relatively highly. In anotherexample, one viewer may say, “it's my turn to decide,” and that viewer'scomments may be weighted more highly. In another example, one viewer maystate, “there is no way that I'm watching that again,” and then a secondviewer may state, “but you got to pick last time,” and so the secondviewer's comments may be weighted more highly. These examples areillustrative and are meant to show that conversations between viewersmay indicate that one person's comments should be given more weight inorder to provide improved and more relevant search results. The resultscan be updated iteratively using words from the viewers' conversationsas the conversation continues in response to the results and followingversions of the updated results. As the conversation continues, themedia guidance application may detect that priorities or deference amongthe viewers may change and so the prioritization and weighting ofcomments by certain users can change. In addition, the comments can beassociated with certain users and information about the users, such asviewing history and preferences, may be used to further improve thesearch results. For example, if one viewer's comments are prioritized ina search, the other viewer's viewing history and preferences may be usedto rank and fine tune the search results to appeal to both viewers. Toremove one viewer's comments or contributions in a conversation, whenthe other viewer's comments are taking priority in the conversation, thehome assistant device may identify each viewer's voice using voicerecognition techniques. The viewer's identity and comments and searchcontributions may be cached in storage by the media guidance applicationwhich will update the bases for the search. In some scenarios, certainvoice commands may be used to select a viewer's comments for the search.In other scenarios, the media guidance application will prioritizeviewer's comments to use for a search. In some scenarios, only oneviewer may be speaking and commenting on search results. Such viewer'scomments may be used by the media guidance application to update searchresults. The comments by the one viewer may be indicated on a screen toshow keywords spoken by the viewer that may be used by the mediaguidance application to update the search results and which the mediaguidance application will use to generate updated screens of searchresults. Such keywords may be shown in a display generated by the mediaguidance application with an icon representing the speaker so that thesource of the keywords used in the updated search is visible. However,in some scenarios, the one viewer that is speaking may not be commentingon the search results, and so his or her comments may not be relevant tothe search. In this scenario, the media guidance application may analyzethe speaker's comments and determine that the terms are not relevant andthus, not perform any search updates. In another scenario, the speakermay be a child and may be commenting on the search results, however,there may be a family setting or parental control setting that may causethe media guidance application to analyze such comments by the child andweigh whether to apply the comments to update the search results.

In an example, modifying search results for a media asset based on aconversation between users may be provided by receiving a search requestfrom a first user. The search request may be commissioned and performedin any suitable manner, for example, using an input to a media guidanceapplication such as a selection using a keyboard or remote control, orusing a voice input or another input. In response to receiving thesearch request, the media guidance application may present a set ofinitial search results. The initial search results may be presented in adisplay screen, for example, on a portable device, computer, televisionscreen or another suitable screen. The search results may be shown withinformation about the search request so that the viewer or viewers cansee a connection between search terms and results. As searches areiterated and refined, the search trail and results may be displayed sothat the user can follow the search evolution. Following the display ofthe initial search results, the media guidance application may receivefeedback about the search results that may be in the form of aconversation by viewers of the search results. The feedback may beobtained using, for example, a home assistant device or other listeningdevice capable of detecting a conversation. In some scenarios, theviewers may initiate a listening mode for the device. In otherscenarios, the device may always be listening and can be activated byhearing spoken words, for example. In another scenario, the mediaguidance application may initiate the home assistant device to listenfor comments when the media guidance application generates a display ofsearch results.

The media guidance application may receive the audio data for theconversation and analyze the conversation. For example, the mediaguidance application may analyze and parse the individual words in theconversation and identify information about the speakers, using forexample, a voice profile, to obtain user profile and preference details.The media guidance application may adjust a first weight for the firstuser and a second weight for the second user based on the analyzedconversation. For example, the media guidance application may detect aninstructive word that may indicate that one of the users should takepriority in the conversation, and so the respective weight for that usermay be increased. Conversely, the media guidance application may detectthat a deferential word that may indicate that user should not beprioritized in the conversation, and so the respective weight for theuser may be decreased. Some words may be detected that match one or bothusers' viewing histories and preferences. Weights may be determined forthe users based on the conversation and used to prioritize words spokenby the users to use in a following search to fine tune the searchresults. The media guidance application may determine that the firstweight is greater than the second weight and then select words that werespoken by the first user and not the second user in the conversation.(In an alternate example, the second weight could be determined to behigher than the first weight and so the words of the second user may beselected rather than the words of the first user.) The media guidanceapplication may then use the selected words to update the search resultsby performing a further search using the selected words. Thus, thesearch results may be further refined using words spoken by a user thatis prioritized by the media guidance application. The search results maybe additionally refined using preference information for one or both ofthe viewers. In some scenarios, a lesser weighted user's comments may beincluded in a following search, but may be given a lesser weight or usedas a minor focus of a following search. As the following search isperformed, and further refined, the terms used for the search requestmay be displayed alongside the search results so that the viewers cantrack and follow a progression of the search. A user interface may beprovided in which the user may make selections to alter the search. Forexample, an option to save a search or undo a search to go back to anearlier iteration, may be provided.

In another example, modifying search results for a media asset based ona conversation between users may be provided by receiving a searchrequest from a first user. The search request may be initiated andperformed in any suitable manner, for example, using an input to a mediaguidance application such as a selection using a keyboard or remotecontrol, or using a voice input or another input. In response toreceiving the search request, the media guidance application may searchfor a media asset in a media database. The media guidance applicationmay then generate a first display of a set of the first search results.The first search results may be presented in a display screen, forexample, on a portable device, computer, television screen or anothersuitable screen.

Following the display of the first search results, the media guidanceapplication may detect a conversation by the first user and a seconduser. The conversation may be detected using a listening device such asa household assistant device or other microphone enabled device capableof capturing audio data. In some scenarios, the users may initiate alistening mode for the listening device. In other scenarios, the devicemay always be listening and can be activated by hearing spoken words,for example. For example, the device may listen to determine whether theconversation is relevant to the search before activating the featuresdescribed herein.

In some scenarios, there may be one speaker that comments on the searchresults in response to a display of search results generated by themedia guidance application. When one speaker makes comments about thesearch results, the home assistant device may use speech-to-textanalysis to convert the speaker's comments to text and then send thetext to the media guidance application. The media guidance applicationmay analyze the text terms for use in updating the search results. Suchterms may be analyzed by the media guidance application to determinerelevance and suitability for updating the search results. The mediaguidance application may also generate display screens showing the textterms used to update search results. A visual indication of the speakeror source of the text terms may also be shown alongside the text termsso that the viewer or viewers may see what terms are being captured andused by the media guidance application and how the comments may affectthe search results. Options for selecting the terms, removing the terms,moving back and forth through the terms may also be supplied in thescreen generated by the media guidance application.

When a conversation about the search results involves more than onespeaker, the media guidance application may determine a first weight forthe first user and a second weight for the second user. The weightdetermination may involve identifying the users using, for example, avoice profile and retrieving a weight associated with the identifiedrespective user. In another example, the determined weight may be adefault weight assigned to each user. In yet another example, thedetermined weights may be assigned based on the order or frequency thatthe users have interacted with the media guidance application, or basedon a frequency that a user's search choices are selected in the mediaguidance application. In a situation where one user is initiating asearch, the first user may have a higher weight given the first user'sinitiation of and request for the media search.

The media guidance application may analyze the conversation between thefirst user and the second user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive audio data for the conversation and parse eachof the spoken words to analyze the terms. In addition, each of thespoken words may be associated with a particular speaker. Theassociation may be specific to an identified speaker, e.g., by matchinga voice profile for the user, using a voice command identifying thespeaker, or generalized to speaker one and speaker two, for example.When the user can be identified using a voice profile, the speaker'swords may be compared against their viewing history to identifypreferences and relevant comments. The words in the conversation areanalyzed using linguistic analyzation techniques to determine, forexample, instructions, parts of speech, names, definitions of terms, andother details about the conversation to determine whether a particularspeaker or words spoken by a particular speaker indicate that thespeaker should be prioritized. This analysis may be reflected byadjusting the first weight and the second weight for the respectiveusers. For example, the media guidance application may detect aninstructive word that may indicate that one of the users should takepriority in the conversation and so the respective weight for that usermay be increased. Conversely, the media guidance application may detecta deferential word that may indicate that the speaker should not beprioritized in the conversation, and so the respective weight for a usermay be decreased. The media guidance application may determine which ofthe first weight and the second weight is greater and then select wordsthat were spoken by the speaker having the higher respective weight. Themedia guidance application may then use the selected words to update thesearch results by performing a further search using the selected words.The media guidance application may also fine tune the search resultsusing preference information for the users. For example, the searchresults may be presented in an order that may appeal to one or both ofthe users. When one user's weight is greater than the other user'sweight, and a search is performed based on the comments of the userhaving the greater weight, the search results may be more appealing toboth users if the results are refined with preference information forthe other user. Thus, the search results may have prioritized one user'scomments over another, yet still takes into account preferences for theother or both users. The search results may be displayed in a mannerincluding search terms so that the viewers can see the evolution andtrack of search results and easily navigate back through the searchtrail. In addition, the viewers may select or remove certain terms inthe search trail to further improve the search results.

In some examples, a media guidance application may determine a weightfor the first user and the second user by comparing a voice pattern forthe first user and/or the second user with a voice pattern profiledatabase to identify the users based on a matching voice pattern. Aweight for the identified user may be obtained based on a profile forthe user. The profile for a user may also include preference details forthe user. The preference information may be compared against wordsdetected in the conversation and, in some examples, words that match apreference profile, may be a basis for increasing a respective users'weight so that the words matching the profile preferences, or otherwords, can be selected to improve the search results. For example, ifone of the speakers in the conversation says, “I love comedies,” and theword, “comedy” is determined to match the speaker's preference profileor viewing history, that speaker's weight may be increased.

In another example, words of a conversation may be parsed to determine apart of speech for the word. For example, if a pronoun is detected amongthe parsed words in the conversation, the media guidance application maydetermine which of the first user and the second user are associatedwith the pronoun. The user associated with the pronoun may have his orher respective weight adjusted based on the determination of associationwith the pronoun. For example, in a conversation where one speaker says,“you choose,” the media guidance application may determine which of thespeakers is associated with, “you” and adjust that speaker's respectiveweight.

In another example, a conversation between the first user and the seconduser may be analyzed so that each spoken word in the conversation may becompared with the terms of the first search results as well as metadataassociated with the first search results. If there is a term among theresults and results related metadata that is determined to match a wordspoken in the conversation, the media guidance application may determinewhich of the users spoke the matching word and adjusting the respectiveweight for the speaker of the matching word. For example, in a set ofresults that includes several television shows, one of the users maysay, “I love those old dramas.” The media guidance application maysearch the search results and associated metadata to identify any thatmatch a drama category or which have a relatively older release date.

In another illustrative example, a conversation between a first user anda second user may be parsed or analyzed to detect positive or negativewords. For example, a home assistant device may be activated to listento a conversation and analyze the conversation for relevance to searchresults. In another scenario, a media guidance application may initiatethe home assistant device to listen for comments when the media guidanceapplication generates a display of search results. The media guidanceapplication may select a home assistant device to initiate based on thedevice proximity to a display of the search results, as well asproximity to the viewers. The media guidance application may initiatethe home assistant device for a certain period, for example, fiveminutes, or for only a period in which the results are displayed in ascreen in order to limit the device listening for comments that arerelated to the results.

The media guidance application may analyze the words heard by the homeassistant device in the conversation to determine whether any of thewords are positive or negative. For any words that are determined to benegative, the media guidance application may determine which of theusers spoke the identified negative word and then adjust the speaker'sweight, accordingly. In an example, a first user may state, in responseto media search results, “I hate all of those movies.” The mediaguidance application may determine the word, “hate” to be negative andassign a lesser weight to the first user since the first user's commentsmay not be helpful in providing an update or refinement to the searchresults list. In some scenarios, that first user's user preferences maybe used to rank or select certain search results of a following searchthat is based on another person's comments so that the search resultscan be appealing to both persons. In another example, a second user maystate, in response to the media search results, “I love that actor.” Inthis example, the media guidance application may determine the word,“love” to be positive, and thus, the media guidance application mayincrease a weight for the second user. In addition, in this example, themedia guidance application may determine the word, “actor” to besignificant and related to the positive term and then update the searchresults with additional choices that include an actor associated withthe first set of search results and actors that may match a user'sviewing history. In some scenarios, the results which are updated withthe actor comment, may be ranked in an order that takes into accountactor preferences for the other speaker. In this way, both viewer'sintents or wishes may be taken into account by performing an updatedsearch for actors based on a first viewer's comment, and then theresults are shown in an order that is based on the second viewer'sviewing history, or preferences, in an effort to appeal to both viewers.A speaker of positive and negative terms may be identified by the mediaguidance application using a voice pattern profile, or designated asunidentified speakers one and two. If the latter, the media guidanceapplication may temporarily store information about the speakers' voicepatterns in order to adjust a speaker's weight and iterate the searchresults using compounding comments by respective speakers.

In another example, a media guidance application may update a mediasearch and provide a display of a second set of search results that arebased on a second search. The second search may be based on aconversation between two users about a first set of search results. Ahome assistant device may listen in on a conversation between the twousers that occurs in response to the second set of search results. Theconversation may be received by the media guidance application and wordsof the conversation may be analyzed by the media guidance application.The words of the conversation may be used as a basis for readjusting arespective weight associated with the first user and the second user.The results for the second search may be presented in an order thattakes into account a preference profile for the first user and thesecond user. For example, if a first user's words are used to perform asearch, they may be tailored to appeal to the second user by ranking thesearch results that are based on the first user's words with a rankingorder that may appeal to the second user. In this way, the mediaguidance application can fine tune search results, as well as the orderof the results, to appeal to both members of the conversation even whenone person has a higher weight. This may allow the search results to berelevant and applicable to the wishes and intents of both viewers. Afurther third search for media assets may be performed by the mediaguidance application based on words in the conversation that areselected based on the readjusted respective weights. The third searchmay also be performed including parameters from the first search and thesecond search. In an illustrative example, a conversation about thesecond search results may include deferential, positive, negative,and/or instructive terms, which may result in an adjustment to a weightassociated with each of the speakers. A following third search may theninclude selected terms by a speaker having a greater weight after theadjustment. Search results for the third search may be presented in anorder or filtered using user preferences of one or both viewers in orderto be relevant and interesting to both viewers. The search results maybe displayed with its search trail so that the viewers can keep track ofthe direction of the search. The search results may be presented withoptions for adjusting the search, moving back and forth in the searchtrail, saving search results, and other options.

In another example, the third search may include terms in theconversation that are determined to be related to prior iterations ofsearch results, or metadata for the prior search results. For example, afirst user may say, “which James Bond actor do you like best?” Thesecond user may respond with, “Roger Moore.” Such a conversation maycause the media guidance application to identify the, “you” spoken bythe first user as an indication of deference to the second user anddetermine that, “Roger Moore” is related to certain James Bond films.Weights for the first user and second user may be adjusted based on thedeferential comment, and the media guidance application may select theactor, “Roger Moore” to include in a third search. In response to theupdated search results, the first user may state, “Oh, I don't want towatch anything too old.” The second user may respond, “Yah, me neither.”The media guidance application may detect a deferential or agreeingcomment by the second user based on his or her response and change thesecond user's weight. For the first user's comments, the media guidanceapplication may detect the negative comment about old movies, and thoseterms may be selected to remove old movies from the prior searchresults. Such comments may be included in the display of the searchresults so that the viewer can see how the comments cause search resultsto be updated. In addition, the comments may be provided in a way thatcan allow the user to remove or select them to further refine thesearch. In an example, the weights of the users change as theconversation about the results continues which may cause different usersto have his or her respective comments selected as instructive orprioritized feedback by the media guidance. In some scenarios, thefollowing results may be ranked or selected based on the users'preference profile so that the results are fine tuned in a manner thatappeals to both viewers.

When a user selects one of the search results, the media guidanceapplication may store the search choice in association with the user orusers as well as the words spoken in the conversation that led to themedia selection, in a user preference profile or another cached profileassociated with a user or device. Such information may be included in adatabase of media search terminology that may be built to improve searchresult quality.

In some environments, a viewer may not wish to have his or herconversation monitored, and in addition, a viewer may not want to havehis or her conversation used to update search results in real time, inan iterative fashion, based on the conversation. To limit suchpotentially unwelcome effects, while still allowing some users to useportions of conversations to update search results, a home assistantdevice may be activated to listen to certain segments of a conversation,user comments, or instructions. Such activation may be performed by theviewers or by the media guidance application when the search results aredisplayed.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of an environment in which a vieweror viewers may seek media and view a display of search results in ascreen generated by a media guidance application in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of search results displayed in ascreen generated by a media guidance application in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 3-9 show illustrative examples of updated search results based onstatements made by a single viewer or a conversation among multipleviewers, that are displayed in a screen generated by a media guidanceapplication in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 10-11 show other illustrative examples of display screensgenerated by a media guidance application in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for updating searchresults in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 15 is another flowchart of an illustrative process for updatingsearch results in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for weighting users toupdate search results in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for adjusting a weightfor a user to update search results in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure; and

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of another illustrative process for updatingsearch results in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Accordingly, systems and methods are described herein for enhancing aviewer's media consumption experience by updating search results basedon a conversation. In particular, a viewer or viewers may request asearch for a media asset. A media guidance application may perform thesearch and generate for display a list of search results based on thesearch. A viewer may make comments about the search results. Or multipleviewers may discuss the search results in a conversation following thedisplay of the search results. A home assistant device, such as anAmazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, or another device, may be usedto listen to the ensuing comment or conversation. The media guidanceapplication may be coupled to the home assistant device (oralternatively, include the listening functionality of the device,itself), and may analyze the comment or conversation overheard by thehome assistant device. Since a conversation may include multiplespeakers with different opinions, the terms of the conversation may becompounding or conflicting as the speakers discuss the search results.In order for the media guidance application to determine which of theterms to include in a following search to update the search results, themedia guidance application may determine a priority of the speakers inthe conversation in order to limit or focus an update of the searchresults. The search results may be filtered and ranked based on one orboth user preferences so that the search results may be interesting toboth users even if only one user is prioritized in the search.

In an example, a priority of the speakers may be determined by analyzingthe conversation between the speakers to detect instructive terms, suchas deferential terms, pronouns or identifiers, positive or negativeterms. In another example, the media guidance application may identify aspeaker in the conversation and assign a baseline weight to the speakerbased on a user profile for the speaker. As the conversation continues,priorities of the speakers may change. For example, one of the speakersmay initially have strong opinions about the media search and searchresults, but then may become more willing to compromise and may suggestthat another viewer decide. To handle the change in priority, the mediaguidance application may monitor the viewers' conversations to determinewhether there is a change in instructions or deference among the viewersthat may indicate such change.

In an example, the media guidance application may parse the conversationwords to determine instructive, deferential, or other key terms spokenby the viewers that may be used to weight each of the viewers. When aweight for the viewers is set, the media guidance application may usethe viewer weight as a basis for selecting words spoken by the viewersto use in a subsequent search. For example, the media guidanceapplication may select words spoken by a viewer having a greater weightrelative to another viewer. In this example, only words spoken by theviewer having the greatest weight may be used for updating the searchresults. In addition, the words spoken by the user having the greaterweight may be selected for use in updating the search results when thewords in the conversation for the user have relevance to the priorsearch or if the spoken words have a connection to the user's profile orpreferences. On the other hand, words spoken by a viewer having a lowerweight may be omitted from an update to the search results. In anotherscenario, words spoken by a viewer having a lower weight may havelimited applicability to updating a search, for example, a lower weightviewer may have words in a conversation that may be selected only whenthe words are very relevant, for example, relevant to prior searches orgenres or media that is determined to be of interest to other speakersin the conversation. For example, a lesser weighted user's preferencesand viewing history may be used to fine tune search results by rankingor selecting certain media assets. In any of these scenarios, the homeassistant device may monitor the conversations about the search resultsand update the media guidance application with such furtherconversations. In some scenarios, the media guidance application mayinitiate the home assistant device to listen for comments when the mediaguidance application generates a display of search results. The mediaguidance application may continue to parse the conversation to determinewhether there are any indications in the conversation that suggest thatone or other of the participants in the conversation should have his orher respective weight adjusted. Changes in weights for either of theparticipants may cause the media guidance application to select wordsspoken by a different speaker who may now have a relatively higherweight.

In an example, a viewer may request a search for media assets that isbased on a media category, such as action movies. A media guidanceapplication may search for the action movies. In some scenarios, themedia guidance application may use user preferences and user history toimprove the search results. The media guidance application may present alist of search results to the viewer, for example, in a display screen.The search results may be presented with information about the searchrequest or basis for obtaining the search results. After the searchresults are displayed by the media guidance application, a homeassistant device may be activated (or may be in a listening mode) tomonitor a conversation between the viewer and another second user aboutthe search results. In some scenarios, the media guidance applicationmay initiate the home assistant device to listen for comments when themedia guidance application generates a display of search results. Themedia guidance application may initiate a home assistant device to alistening mode that is near the search result display and/or near theviewers. The device may be activated for a period following the displayso that it can listen for comments made about the search results.

The conversation about the search results may include any type ofcomments, opinions, or reactions to the search results. For example, theviewer may say, “I'd like to watch something old that we've seenbefore.” In response, the second user may say, “no, it's my turn todecide, and I want to watch something new.” Such a conversation may becaptured by the home assistant device and analyzed by the media guidanceapplication. The media guidance application may parse the terms of theconversation and detect that the second user stated, “it's my turn todecide,” and assign a relatively greater weight to the second user basedon the assertion by the second user identifying himself or herself usingthe pronoun, “my.” Since the second user may now have the greater weightbetween the second user and the viewer, the media guidance applicationmay select terms spoken by the second user, e.g., “I want to watchsomething new,” which may cause the media guidance application to updatethe search results with only action movies that have a recent releasedate. Both users' preferences may be used to improve the search results.For example, since the first user said they wanted to watch somethingthey had seen already, the search results for the newer items may beranked so that items that have been seen already may be listed first.Alternatively, or in addition, one or the other of the user'spreferences may be used to improve the search results. Sometimes thepreferences for a non-prioritized user can be used to make a set ofsearch results more applicable to both users. In other scenarios, theprioritized user's preferences may be more suitable for presentinginteresting search results.

Turning to FIG. 1, an environment for using the features andfunctionalities described herein may be in a household having one ormore individuals. There may be a television screen 100 that may be usedto display media, as well as personal devices such as a smartphone 120,or a tablet device (not shown), which may include a screen capable ofdisplaying media, as well as search results that can be updated. Inaddition, the environment may include one or more home assistant devices130 and 140 which may be capable of listening, in a passive mode or uponactivation, for instructions or comments from members of a household.The home assistant devices may be connected using a home network to oneor more other devices, such as a device configured to run a mediaguidance application, speakers, smartphones, computers, lights,television screens, or other networked devices. Each of the members ofthe household may have a voice pattern profile that may be stored andrecognized by the home assistant device so that user requests may beperformed according to each respective user's preferences.

One or more of the viewers may initiate a search for media by anytechnique, such as entering a query in the media guidance applicationusing an input device or an audio or voice command. The media guidanceapplication may perform the media search by searching for a keyword orother search parameter in a media database. The media guidanceapplication may use any suitable search technique to provide suitableresults, including, using details from the search requester's userhistory or preferences, or from overall media rankings, or other searchtechniques. The media guidance application may generate a display of thesearch results on a screen, such as a television screen 100 orsmartphone 120 for the viewer.

Turning to FIG. 2, in an example, search results may be displayed in ascreen 200 based on a user initiated request for, “James Bond Movies”210. The text of the search request 210 may be displayed on screen 200to inform the viewer of the search basis or search trail. In somescenarios, such text may be omitted. The search results 220 may beobtained by the media guidance application which may generate displayscreen 200 including search results 220 based on one user's searchrequest. The search results 220 may include several different movies(222-228) in the James Bond franchise of movies. The search results 220may include James Bond movies from different periods and can includeJames Bond movies that are relatively popular among movie viewers, or inparticular, James Bond movies that are preferred by the searchrequester. Information about each of the James Bond movie options may beincluded in the display screen, such as release year, or other suitablemetadata about the movie. The basis for the search “James Bond movies”230 may also appear in the display with an option for including it orremoving it. An icon 235 may be displayed alongside the search trail 230as an indication of the source of the comment or search request. Suchicon may be helpful so that users can see which of their comments mayhave affected the search results. Providing icon 235 may also be helpfulif, for example, one viewer wishes to remove all comments from one orthe other viewer. To remove one viewer's comments, the viewer may speaka comment, which may also be a command, that is heard by the homeassistant device and transmitted to the media guidance application foruse in updating the search. The removal of a viewer's comments from asearch trail may be based on an explicit comment or command or performedautomatically by the media guidance application based on a change inweight and priority of the viewers. The viewers may be identified forthis purpose using voice matching performed by the home assistant deviceor by identification of the icon 235 in the results screen, or othersuitable method. The icon 235 may also provide a visual representationof which viewer's comments may be affecting the search. The icon 235 maybe a customized avatar or related to the user, or may be a genericsymbol to differentiate users. Other options, not shown, such as save,exit, back, undo, or other choices may be included in the display.

When the search results are presented in screen 200, a listening device,such as a home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may be activated,may be passively listening, or may be activated by the media guidanceapplication to monitor a conversation about the search results when thesearch results are displayed. The media guidance application mayactivate a home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) based onproximity to the screen 200 and/or the viewers. In addition, the homeassistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may be activated for a certainperiod of time following display of the search results. In somescenarios, the home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may recognizea voice pattern of the search requester and can store the search requestin association with the identity of the search requester to build a userhistory profile. The home assistant device may monitor a conversation,comments, or voice instructions following the results presented inscreen 200 and may capture a comment relevant to the search results. Insome scenarios, the home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) mayanalyze comments to determine whether the words are relevant to thesearch results. A determination of whether the words are relevant to thesearch results may be performed by capturing words spoken by a viewer,in, for example, a conversation with another viewer, or as a voiceinstruction or comment for a single viewer, using the home assistantdevice (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) or other audio capable device and analyzingthe words using a media guidance application processor using naturallanguage processing techniques and speech-to-text techniques to convertthe conversation into text. Text corresponding to the search results,including, for example, the text of the options displayed on the screen200, as well as text corresponding to metadata for each of the optionsdisplayed on the screen 200 may be referenced by the media guidanceapplication and compared to the text of the comments. Such text may bemade available in a manner that can be recognized by the viewer so thathe or she may call on such text as a trigger for refining the searchresults. Conversation text that directly matches or overlaps, or isrelated to a synonym of the search result text may be determined to berelated to the search results. In addition to the search result text,the media guidance application may have a glossary of certain mediarelated terms such as actor, genre, popular programming, or other termsto reference in a determination of whether comments are related to thesearch results.

If the words are not relevant, the home assistant device (130 or 140(FIG. 1)) may ignore the comments. If, however, the words are determinedto be relevant to the search results, the home assistant device (130 or140 (FIG. 1)) may send text for the comments or conversation to themedia guidance application. (In some scenarios, the home assistantdevice may send recorded conversation data to a processor to analyze.)In an example, the home assistant device may overhear a conversation inwhich one or two or more viewers are discussing the James Bond movieresult options 220 (FIG. 2) and one of the participants may make acomment, “James Bond, but not Daniel Craig.” In another example, theremay be one viewer of search results 220 (FIG. 2) making the samecomment, “James Bond, but not Daniel Craig,” that may be meant as acomment to refine the search. Analysis of this comment may determinethat Daniel Craig is an actor that has played the character James Bond.Such comment may cause the search results to be updated as shown in FIG.3.

Turning to FIG. 3, a display screen 300 may be generated to show anupdate to search results previously shown in FIG. 2, based on a commentin conversation, “not Daniel Craig,” 310. In some scenarios, theconversation may be one-sided and the search results may be updatedbased on comments from one of the viewers of the search results shown inFIG. 2. The text 310 used to update the search request may be displayedon screen 300 to inform the viewer (or viewers) of the basis forupdating the search. In some scenarios, such text 310 may be omitted.The search results 320 are shown as an update to those shown previouslyas search results 220 (FIG. 2) to remove James Bond movies that includeDaniel Craig. Thus, for example, Spectre, Skyfall and Casino Royale(222, 223 and 224 (FIG. 2)) are removed from the list of search results320. Some additional James Bond movies, such as From Russia with Love326 may be added to the search results 320. The addition of new option326 may be based on popularity of the movie, or relevance to the speakerof the comment, “not Daniel Craig.” The basis for updating the searchresults in FIG. 3 may be presented in the display, e.g., James Bondmovies, and not Daniel Craig 330. The information about updating thesearch results may be helpful to the users to see how the search haschanged in light of the viewer's conversation (or in the case of asingle viewer, the comments of the single viewer). The order of theresults 320 may be ranked based on one or both of the viewer'spreferences or viewing histories. In some scenarios, the results 320 maybe ranked based on a media popularity ranking so that the most commonlyviewed media item is ranked more highly. An icon 335 may be displayedalongside the search trail 330 as an indication of the source of thecomment. Such icon may be helpful so that users can see which of theircomments may have affected the search results. Providing icon 335 mayalso be helpful if, for example, one viewer wishes to remove allcomments from one or the other viewer. Removing the comments of a viewermay be performed by the media guidance application in response to acommand or trigger such as a comment by one of the viewers to remove oneviewer's comments, or comments associated with an icon 335, or othersuitable command. The icon 335 may also provide a visual representationof which viewer's comments may be affecting the search.

A conversation about the search results may continue between the viewersin response to the search options 320. Another voice in the conversationmay state, for example, “not James Bond again.” And in response, asecond voice may state, “Yes, James Bond.” When a home assistant device(130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) hears such comments, the media guidanceapplication may yield the updated list of search results shown in FIG.4. FIG. 4 shows a display screen 400 which may include comments from theconversation 410 and 415 referring to the search results 320 (FIG. 3).In an example, the speaker of the comment, “not James Bond again” 410may be identified by the home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) asbeing a child, using a voice pattern profile. In some scenarios, when achild is discussing search results with an adult, e.g., a parent, themedia guidance application may associate a lesser weight with the childand give greater weight to the comments of the adult. In anotherscenario, the media guidance application may ignore the comments fromthe child. Parents may configure settings in the home assistant device(130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) or media guidance application to reflectpreferences in this regard. Since the home assistant device (130 or 140(FIG. 1)) may have identified one of the participants in theconversation as a child, the search results may be updated by the mediaguidance application to the choices 420 which include James Bond movieshaving a PG rating. Thus, the search results may be updated according tothe intents and wishes of a prioritized user, while taking into accountthat the other viewer may be a minor and so the results should have a PGrating. This technique allows the results to be interesting and relevantto both viewers. In addition, the media guidance application may weightmore highly the speaker of a positive or affirmative comment and selectthe terms, “Yes, James Bond,” 415 to use in updating the search resultsto obtain the options 420. At the same time, the media guidanceapplication may give less weight to a speaker of a negative comment,such as, “not James Bond again,” 410. If the media guidance applicationdetects that a second similar negative comment by a second speaker,which may indicate agreement on some point, the media guidanceapplication may update the search results to omit the agreed upondisliked aspect of the search results. The search trail, beginning withthe search basis from FIG. 2, may be presented in 430 including JamesBond movies, not Daniel Craig, and the parental control rating so thatthe viewers can keep track of the search trail. An icon 435 may bedisplayed alongside the search basis trail 430 as an indication of thesource of the comment. For example, icon 440 may be displayed next toparental control so that the viewers can see that the presence of achild may affect the search results. Options to keep or remove suchsearch bases may be available so that the users can update or refine thesearch. The search trails 230 (FIG. 2), 330 (FIG. 3) and 430 (FIG. 4)may be presented in side-by-side windows or other layout so that theviewer can see how the search terms affect the updated search results.

The media guidance application may update search results iterativelybased on a conversation about the search results. As a conversationcontinues, the results may be updated based on recent comments which maybe applied to the most recent search results, and also prior iterationsof search results. In addition, the users' preferences may be applied ineach iteration to further refine the search results. The media guidanceapplication may track comments and the development of a search and itsiterations until a selection of a media asset is made. The comments andsearch development may be displayed in the user interface so that theuser can see the search development. The comments and searches may beassociated with individuals participating in the conversation and usedto develop a search history and user history for the viewers. The searchand user histories may be stored in a user profile and may also be usedto refine a search. This can be particularly helpful with naturallanguage queries when a user is not using a category or title orkeywords to perform a search.

In another example, a first viewer may initiate a search for media byspeaking or inputting a search command, such as, “let's bingesomething.” The search results may be depicted as shown in FIG. 5, whichshows a display screen 500 having the text of the search, “let's bingesomething” 510 as well as some search results 520 that include mediathat is commonly binge-watched. In addition, the search results 520 maybe based on a user preference or user history for the search requester.The text of the search 510 may be displayed or omitted. The searchresults 520 may be presented in a manner that allows each be selected toaccess the media. Additional information about each of the media optionsfor the search results 520 may be displayed as well. The basis of thesearch may be presented in a bottom window 530 along with other optionsfor the search, such as save, back, undo, exit, or other media optionsand media categories. An icon 535 may be displayed alongside the searchbasis 530 as an indication of the source of the comment. Such icon maybe helpful so that users can see which of their comments may haveaffected the search results. Providing icon 535 may also be helpful if,for example, one viewer wishes to remove all comments from one or theother viewer. Viewer comments may be removed by an oral commandindicating which viewers' comments to remove, or by identifying commentsassociated with an icon, e.g., icon 535, or by an input using an inputdevice and selecting comments via the display. The icon 535 may alsoprovide a visual representation of which viewer's comments may beaffecting the search.

In response to the search results shown in FIG. 5, a conversation maybegin between viewers of the results. For example, two viewers may talkto each other about the search results 520. A first viewer may say, “howabout something funny?” This comment may be heard by a home assistantdevice (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) that can be activated to listen to aconversation to assist with updating the search results, or it can beset to a passive listening mode which may activate, for example, when itsenses a relevant comment or instruction. In response to receiving thecomment from the home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)), a mediaguidance application may analyze the comment to perform a naturallanguage query based on the comment.

In FIG. 6, the first viewer's comment, “how about something funny,” maybe selected by the media guidance application to update the searchresults 520 (FIG. 5). Since the prior set of search results 520 (FIG. 5)were related to binged media, an update based on the conversation mayinclude comedies that are often binge watched. Thus, updated searchresults based on a comment, “how about something funny?” 610 may lead toa display screen 600 being generated including updated search results620 having options for comedies that are frequently binge watched. Thesearch results 620 may be ranked based on relative popularity of themedia, or based on user preferences for one or both of the viewers, or acombination thereof. A search trail 630 may include the search bases,for example: binge series and funny. The search trail 630 allows theviewer to see how the searched comments affect the updated searchresults. An icon 635 may be displayed alongside the search trail 630 asan indication of the source of the comment. Such icon 635 may be helpfulso that users can see which of their comments may have affected thesearch results.

Generally speaking, the media guidance application may store thecomments of the viewers in association with a viewer profile so that auser history can be established to improve search results. An identityof the user may be obtained using a voice pattern profile so that thecomments in the conversation can be assigned to a particular user.Alternatively, the media guidance application may store the conversationcomments to an unspecified user so that the user's identity is notstored, rather all comments for one user are stored together without anassociated user.

In response to the display of binge-able media search results 620, theviewers may comment on the set of search results, and the second viewermay comment, “I like that actor.” Metadata for each of the searchresults 620 may be searched to determine cast information, and anupdated set of search results including other comedies with a relatedcast may be produced, as shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows a display screen700 with an updated search based on the comment, “I like that actor,”710. The updated search results 720 may include, for example, “Cheers”722 which a comedy starring Ted Danson who also appears in, “The GoodPlace” 622 (FIG. 6), and, “The Office” 723 which is a comedy starringMindy Kaling and Ellie Kemper who appear in, “The Mindy Project” 625and, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” 627, respectively. The actors, as wellas the prior search bases may be presented in window 730 so that theviewers can follow the search evolution. The viewers may select orremove any of the search terms in 730 to further refine the search. Theresults 720 may be presented in an order based on popularity of themedia, or based on user preferences for one or both of the viewers, or acombination thereof. In some scenarios, the ranking may be performedbased on the preferences of the non-prioritized viewer so that theresults may be interesting to both viewers. In other scenarios, theranking may be performed based on preferences for the prioritizedviewer. Icons 735 and 740 may be placed alongside the search trailcomments and options so that the viewers can see which of their commentsor user preferences may be affecting the search results.

The viewers may continue talking about the new search results 720, andthe second viewer may comment that they want, “only new stuff” The mediaguidance application may update the search results in FIG. 7 to obtainthose shown in FIG. 8. FIG. 8 shows a display screen 800 having updatedsearch results based on a comment, “only new stuff,” 810. Of the searchresults 720 (FIG. 7) shown previously, the media guidance applicationmay remove choices having an early release date and update the searchresults to include those having more recent releases. Thus, new searchresults 820 may be presented in display 800. The search trail may beshown in 830 so that the viewers can keep track of the search process.Icons 835 and 840 may be displayed alongside the search trail 830options so that the viewers can see which of their comments andpreferences may be affecting the search results. Both icons representingboth viewers, e.g., 850, may indicate that some options are relevant toboth viewers. In some scenarios, windows for prior sets of searchresults and search terms may be shown in the display so that the viewerscan go back or forward within the sets of search results.

Viewing numerous iterations of search results may be helpful to someusers. Other users may find the multitude of choices and variationsunhelpful. At some point in the conversation, the first viewer may nolonger wish to comment on the search results and may defer to the secondviewer. That first viewer may say, for example, “you decide,” to thesecond viewer. The home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) maydeliver this comment for analysis by the media guidance applicationwhich may determine that it indicates a deferential statement indicatingthat the first viewer wishes to let the second viewer choose an option.This statement may cause the media guidance application to adjust aweight for the second viewer so that the comments spoken by the secondviewer will take priority over the comments of the first viewer. Thus, anew set of search results may be presented to the viewers in FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 depicts a display screen 900 having updated search results basedon a comment, “you decide” 910. The comment 910 may be included in thedisplay 900 or omitted. The comment 910 may also be displayed in amanner which indicates which of the viewers said the comment. Forexample, in FIG. 9, the first viewer comment, “you decide,” 910 is shownin bold. In FIG. 8, the second viewer comment, “only new stuff,” 810 isshown in bold italics. Other ways of distinguishing a source of thecomment may also be used, such as a personal icon, color, or othermanner.

The updated search results 920 may be obtained by the media guidanceapplication using selected comments by the second viewer since the firstviewer has deferred the choice to the second viewer. Thus, the searchresults 920 may include new media items, and media having actors incommon with earlier sets of search results, but may not necessarily belimited to comedies, which was a comment added by the first viewer inthe search update 620 (FIG. 6). The search results 920 may be presentedbased on the user preferences of the newly prioritized viewer, howeversome search results that appeal to both or other user viewer may bepresented so that the set of search results 920 are interesting to bothusers. The search trail 930 may be presented so that the users can seethe search path. The search trail 930 may be displayed with icons 935and 940 indicating a user associated with comments and preferences sothat the viewers can see how their selections and comments may affectthe search results.

Although the examples shown in FIGS. 2-9 appear to contain singlecomments from a conversation, the comments can be overlapping and can bepart of an ongoing conversation between viewers and the comments areportions of the conversation. In some scenarios, this may be because oneviewer is making comments. As the conversation continues, the mediaguidance application may select and omit comments of the viewers forupdating the search results using an adjustable weight for each viewer.The weight may vary based on perceived comments in the conversation suchas deference, commands, positive comments, negative comments, and otherfactors. A search trail may be presented in the display with the updatedsearch results, or presented in other windows so that the viewers cankeep track of the search path and updates. Providing multiple windowpanes of search sets may be helpful so that the users can see howcertain comments may affect search results. In addition, such panes maybe used to save, and go back and forth easily through the searchresults.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms,“media asset” and, “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term,“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase,“user equipment device,”, “user equipment,”, “user device,”, “electronicdevice,”, “electronic equipment,”, “media equipment device,” or, “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase, “mediaguidance data” or, “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 10-11 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 10-11may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform.While the displays of FIGS. 10-11 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remotecontrol or other user input interface or device. In response to theuser's indication, the media guidance application may provide a displayscreen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, suchas by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, bycontent type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, orother categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, orother organization criteria.

FIG. 10 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 1000arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 1000 may include grid 1002 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 1004, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 1006, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 1002 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 1008, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 1010. Information relatingto the program listing selected by highlight region 1010 may be providedin program information region 1012. Region 1012 may include, forexample, the program title, the program description, the time theprogram is provided (if applicable), the channel the program is on (ifapplicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing, “The Sopranos” and,

“Curb Your Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by TimeWarner Company L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 1002 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 1014, recorded content listing 1016, andInternet content listing 1018. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a, “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 1000 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings1014, 1016, and 1018 are shown as spanning the entire time blockdisplayed in grid 1002 to indicate that selection of these listings mayprovide access to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recordedlistings, or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments,listings for these content types may be included directly in grid 1002.Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the userselecting one of the navigational icons 1020. (Pressing an arrow key ona user input device may affect the display in a similar manner asselecting navigational icons 1020.)

Display 1000 may also include video region 1022, and options region1026. Video region 1022 may allow the user to view and/or previewprograms that are currently available, will be available, or wereavailable to the user. The content of video region 1022 may correspondto, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 1002.Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 1026 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 1026 may be part of display 1000(and other display screens described herein), or may be invoked by auser by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated orassignable button on a user input device. The selectable options withinoptions region 1026 may concern features related to program listings ingrid 1002 or may include options available from a main menu display.Features related to program listings may include searching for other airtimes or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enablingseries recording of a program, setting program and/or channel as afavorite, purchasing a program, or other features. Options availablefrom a main menu display may include search options, VOD options,parental control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, devicesynchronization options, second screen device options, options to accessvarious types of media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to apremium service, options to edit a user's profile, options to access abrowse overlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized, “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 13. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 11. Video mosaic display 1100 includes selectable options 1102 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 1100, television listings option 1104is selected, thus providing listings 1106, 1108, 1110, and 1112 asbroadcast program listings. In display 1100 the listings may providegraphical images including cover art, still images from the content,video clip previews, live video from the content, or other types ofcontent that indicate to a user the content being described by the mediaguidance data in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 1108 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 1114 and text portion 1116.Media portion 1114 and/or text portion 1116 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 1114 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 1100 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 1106is larger than listings 1108, 1110, and 1112), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 12 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 1200. More specific implementationsof user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG.13. User equipment device 1200 may receive content and data viainput/output (hereinafter, “I/O”) path 1202. I/O path 1202 may providecontent (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internetcontent, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide areanetwork (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 1204,which includes processing circuitry 1206 and storage 1208. Controlcircuitry 1204 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, andother suitable data using I/O path 1202. I/O path 1202 may connectcontrol circuitry 1204 (and specifically processing circuitry 1206) toone or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may beprovided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown asa single path in FIG. 12 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 1204 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 1206. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 1204 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 1208). Specifically, control circuitry 1204 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 1204 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 1204 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 1204 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 13). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 1208 thatis part of control circuitry 1204. As referred to herein, the phrase,“electronic storage device” or, “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 1208 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 13, may be used to supplementstorage 1208 or instead of storage 1208.

Control circuitry 1204 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 1204 may also include scaler circuitry forupconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output formatof the user equipment 1200. Circuitry 1204 may also includedigital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital convertercircuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuningand encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device toreceive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning andencoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. Thecircuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, videogenerating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, andanalog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running onone or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tunersmay be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch andrecord functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tunerrecording, etc.). If storage 1208 is provided as a separate device fromuser equipment 1200, the tuning and encoding circuitry (includingmultiple tuners) may be associated with storage 1208.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 1204 using user inputinterface 1210. User input interface 1210 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 1212 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1200. For example, display 1212 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface1210 may be integrated with or combined with display 1212. Display 1212may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display(LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperaturepoly silicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display,active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display,cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display,electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performanceaddressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emittingdiode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), lasertelevision, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometricmodulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visualimages. In some embodiments, display 1212 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 1212 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 1212.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry1204. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 1204.Speakers 1214 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1200 or may be stand-alone units. The audio componentof videos and other content displayed on display 1212 may be playedthrough speakers 1214. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributedto a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio viaspeakers 1214.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 1200. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage1208), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 1204 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 1208 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 1204 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 1210. Forexample, movement of a cursor in a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 1210 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 1200 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 1200. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 1204 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 1204) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 1200. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 1200.Equipment device 1200 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 1210 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 1200 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 1210.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 1200 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 1204). In some embodiments, the guidanceapplication may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF),received by control circuitry 1204 as part of a suitable feed, andinterpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 1204. Forexample, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In someembodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series ofJAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine orother suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 1204. In some ofsuch embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 1200 of FIG. 12 can be implemented in system 1300of FIG. 13 as user television equipment 1302, user computer equipment1304, wireless user communications device 1306, or any other type ofuser equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portablegaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 12 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 1302, user computer equipment 1304, or awireless user communications device 1306. For example, user televisionequipment 1302 may, like some user computer equipment 1304, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 1304 may, like some television equipment 1302,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 1304, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 1306.

In system 1300, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 13 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 1302, user computer equipment 1304, wireless usercommunications device 1306) may be referred to as a, “second screendevice.” For example, a second screen device may supplement contentpresented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on thesecond screen device may be any suitable content that supplements thecontent presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the secondscreen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and displaypreferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screendevice is configured for interacting with other second screen devices orfor interacting with a social network. The second screen device can belocated in the same room as the first device, a different room from thefirst device but in the same house or building, or in a differentbuilding from the first device.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network1314. Namely, user television equipment 1302, user computer equipment1304, and wireless user communications device 1306 are coupled tocommunications network 1314 via communications paths 1308, 1310, and1312, respectively. Communications network 1314 may be one or morenetworks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice ordata network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switchedtelephone network, or other types of communications network orcombinations of communications networks. Paths 1308, 1310, and 1312 mayseparately or together include one or more communications paths, suchas, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path thatsupports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections(e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitablewired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path1312 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 13 it is a wireless path and paths 1308 and1310 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (althoughthese paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with theuser equipment devices may be provided by one or more of thesecommunications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 13 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 1308, 1310, and 1312, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 1314.

System 1300 includes content source 1316 and media guidance data source1318 coupled to communications network 1314 via communication paths 1320and 1322, respectively. Paths 1320 and 1322 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 1308, 1310,and 1312. Communications with the content source 1316 and media guidancedata source 1318 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 13 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 1316 and media guidance data source 1318, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 13 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 1316 and media guidance data source 1318 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 1316 and 1318with user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and 1306 are shown as throughcommunications network 1314, in some embodiments, sources 1316 and 1318may communicate directly with user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and1306 via communication paths (not shown) such as those described abovein connection with paths 1308, 1310, and 1312.

Content source 1316 may include one or more types of contentdistribution equipment including a television distribution facility,cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programmingsources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.),intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers,on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademarkowned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademarkowned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademarkowned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 1316 may be theoriginator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcastprovider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., anon-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcastprograms for downloading, etc.). Content source 1316 may include cablesources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 1316 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 1318 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 1318may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 1318 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 1318 mayprovide user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and 1306 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 1208, andexecuted by control circuitry 1204 of a user equipment device 1200. Insome embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 1204 of user equipment device1200 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g.,media guidance data source 1318) running on control circuitry of theremote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server(such as media guidance data source 1318), the media guidanceapplication may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidanceapplication displays and transmit the generated displays to the userequipment devices. The server application may instruct the controlcircuitry of the media guidance data source 1318 to transmit data forstorage on the user equipment. The client application may instructcontrol circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate theguidance application displays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices1302, 1304, and 1306 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 1300 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 13.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 1314.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 1316 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 1302 and user computer equipment 1304may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 1306 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as, “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 1314. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 1316 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 1318. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 1302, user computer equipment 1304, andwireless user communications device 1306. For example, the other userequipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or astreamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operatein a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 1304 or wireless usercommunications device 1306 having content capture feature.Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a userequipment device, such as user computer equipment 1304. The userequipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloudusing a data transmission service on communications network 1314. Insome embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource,and other user equipment devices can access the content directly fromthe user equipment device on which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 12.

As referred herein, the term, “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term, “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1400 forupdating search results based on a conversation in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1400 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 12-13. For example, process 1400 may be executedby control circuitry 1204 (FIG. 12) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG. 13)) to present updated search results. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1400 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodimentdescribed herein.

FIG. 14 depicts a flowchart for a process 1400 for updating searchresults based on a conversation. FIG. 14 may be implemented in anenvironment such as that shown in FIG. 1 where media viewers mayinitiate a search for media that is updated according to a conversationamong the viewers. The process 1400 may be performed using controlcircuitry 1204 for a media guidance application and a home assistantdevice (130 and 140 (FIG. 1)) that may be activated to listen, or whichis passively listening, to the conversation among the viewers.

At step 1405, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may receive a search request from a first user. The searchrequest may be input to the media guidance application by the first userusing any suitable technique, such as entering search terms or speakinga command to search, or another technique.

At step 1410, in response to receiving the search request, the controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may perform a searchfor media assets in a database based on the search request. An initialset of search results may be presented to the viewers. The controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may generate a displayof the initial set of search results in a display screen, such asscreens 100, 120 (FIG. 1) and 200 (FIG. 2). Each of the initial set ofsearch results may be presented in a manner such that each can beselected by a viewer to access a media item.

Upon viewing the set of search results, the viewers may discuss thesearch results in a conversation that may be overheard and monitored bya home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)). At step 1415, theconversation monitored by the home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG.1)) may be analyzed by the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication. The conversation may be analyzed by the control circuitry1204 for the media guidance application to detect comments that may berelevant to the search results and which may be useful for performing anupdate to the search results. The conversation may also be analyzed bythe control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application in orderto detect priorities among the viewers. For example, in a conversationabout the search results, one viewer may have positive or negativefeedback, while another viewer may have a comment that is related to oneor both of the viewer's viewing history, one viewer may make adeferential statement which may indicate that the other viewer'scomments or choices should take precedence. Other elements of theconversation may also be used to determine a priority of the viewers sothat the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application canassign a weight to the viewers to use for determining which comments bythe viewers to use in updating the search results. In some scenarios,there may be one viewer that speaks about the search results. In suchscenario, the media guidance application may perform a search updatebased on the viewer's comments.

At step 1420, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may identify some comment made by one of the viewers thatmay indicate priorities among the viewers, and adjust, based on theconversation between the first user and the second user, a first weightassigned to the first user and a second weight assigned to the seconduser. The weights for each of the users may begin at a baseline value.In some scenarios, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may search a user profile to determine a weight for the userwhich may be based on user history, such as frequency in making choicesor searches that yield a selected media asset. In another example,parents and children may have specified settings for search controls.

At step 1425, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may determine if the first weight is greater than the secondweight (or vice versa). The determination may be performed by referringto the respective weights for each user and comparing the values.

If the first weight is greater than the second weight, at step 1430, thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may selectwords spoken by the first user and not the second user. The controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may select some or allcomments made by the first user. If all of the comments are selected forthe first user, natural language processing may be performed for anupdate search query at step 1440. In some scenarios, only some commentsin the conversation spoken by the first user may be selected based onrelevance to the search results. Those terms may be identified by thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application by comparingthe spoken words to a database or glossary of words or a corpus of wordsthat are generally related to media search, names of the viewers, partsof speech to identify, for example a pronoun, words associated with aviewer's user profile or viewing history, words related to the searchresults and associated metadata.

If the first weight is not greater than the second weight, at step 1435,the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may selectwords spoken by the second user and not the first user. The controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may select some or allcomments made by the second user. If all of the comments are selectedfor the first user, natural language processing may be performed for anupdate search query at step 1440. In some scenarios, only some commentsin the conversation spoken by the second user may be selected based onrelevance to the search results. In some scenarios, words spoken by thefirst user that are relevant or supportive of the search may also beused to refine the search. Such terms may be identified by the controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application by comparing thespoken words to a database or glossary of words or a corpus of wordsthat are generally related to media search, names of the viewers, partsof speech to identify, for example a pronoun, words associated with aviewer's user profile or viewing history, words related to the searchresults and associated metadata.

In an example, the initial set of search results may be modified basedon the selected words of the first user. This may occur in an examplewhere a first user and a second user discuss the initial set of searchresults and the second user makes a deferential comment such as, “Youdecide,” or, “It's your turn to choose.” Such comments may be analyzedby the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application and thepronoun, “you” or, “your” may be identified as deferring a choice to thefirst user (e.g., as discussed with reference to FIG. 9). The controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may use voice patterninformation to determine which of the viewers has spoken in theconversation. User preferences for one or both of the viewers may beused to further refine the search results, for example by selecting oneor more suitable search results to show in a display of the searchresults and in an order for ranking search results in a display of thesearch results.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 14 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 14 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 12-13 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 14.

FIG. 15 is another flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1500 forupdating search results based on a conversation in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1500 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 12-13. For example, process 1500 may be executedby control circuitry 1204 (FIG. 12) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG. 13)) to present updated search results. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1500 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodimentdescribed herein.

FIG. 15 depicts a process 1500 for updating search results for a mediaasset based on a conversation. The conversation may be between more thanone viewer and be about the search results for the media asset. Theconversation may be analyzed to update the search results. Inparticular, the conversation may be analyzed to detect a prioritybetween the viewers to determine which viewer's comments to use inupdating the search results. A determination of whether the words arerelevant to the search results may be performed by capturing wordsspoken in a conversation using the home assistant device (130 or 140(FIG. 1)) or other audio capable device and analyzing the words using amedia guidance application processor using natural language processingtechniques and speech-to-text techniques to convert the conversationinto text. Text corresponding to the search results, including, forexample, the text of the options displayed in a screen (e.g., 200 (FIG.2) or 300 (FIG. 3)) as well as text corresponding to metadata for eachof the options displayed on the screen (e.g., 200 (FIG. 2) or 300 (FIG.3)) may be referenced by the media guidance application and compared tothe text of the conversation. Conversation text that directly matches oroverlaps, or is related to a synonym of the search result text may bedetermined to be related to the search results. In addition to thesearch result text, the media guidance application may have a glossaryof certain media related terms such as actor, genre, popularprogramming, or other terms to reference in a determination of whethercomments are related to the search results. In another example, themedia guidance application may search text and metadata from a userprofile or viewing history to determine a relevant term. In anotherexample, a glossary of positive and negative terminology may also bereferenced by the media guidance application. The glossaries may bestored in a database accessible by the media guidance application andwhich may be updated with user data to improve search result quality.

In an example, one viewer's comments may be more positive, or relevantto the search results, or relevant to a viewer's viewing history. Such aviewer may be weighted relatively high. On the other hand, anotherviewer may be negative or make comments that are not connected to thesearch results or related to a viewer's viewing history. Such a viewermay be weighted relatively low. In addition, a viewer may make a commentthat may indicate that another viewer's comments may be more importantby way of a deferential comment.

Process 1500 may begin at step 1505 where control circuitry 1204 for amedia guidance application may receive a search request from a firstuser. The search request may be input to the control circuitry 1204 forthe media guidance application using any suitable technique such asusing keywords entered in a search interface, or using an audio command,or another search technique.

The search request may be received by the control circuitry 1204 for themedia guidance application, which may perform the search for a mediaasset in a media database. The search for the media asset may beperformed using suitable search techniques and may be tailored to theuser using user profile information or another factor.

The search results may be presented at step 1520 by the controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application. The control circuitry1204 for the media guidance application may generate a first display ofa set of first search results. The list of search results may appear ina screen, such as screens 100, 120 or 200. The search results mayinclude one or more media assets and may be shown in the display withinformation about the media assets. The search results may be displayedwith an option to access the media asset. The search results may also bedisplayed with a search trail that shows the terms searched to producethe search results. The search trail may be displayed in a window withthe search results or in multiple panes or picture-in-picture windows,as may be suitable for the screen on which the display is shown, so thatthe users can see a progression of the search and how the search termsmay have affected the set of search results. A user interface formodifying the search trail to further refine a search set may begenerated by the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication. Such user interface may be interacted with via inputsincluding audio commands through the home assistant or using a touch pador remote control or other pointing device.

The display of the search results at step 1520 may lead to a discussionamong the viewers about the search results and/or the basis for thelatest set of search results. For example, one of the viewers or usersmay like one or more of the options, and may make a comment in thatregard. Such a comment may affect, for example, a choice of an actor inthe search set. Another viewer may make a comment agreeing with theother viewer, or say something related to the search results. At step1525, a home assistant device (130 or 140, FIG. 1) may be used to detecta conversation between the first user and the second user. Theconversation may be detected upon activation of the home assistantdevice (130 or 140, FIG. 1) or when using its passive listening mode.The content of the conversation may be shared with the media guidanceapplication for analysis.

At step 1530, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may determine a first weight for the first user, and asecond weight for the second user in the conversation. The weights forthe respective users may be determined by the control circuitry 1204 forthe media guidance application using a baseline weight. In anotherexample, the weights for the respective users may be determined by thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application based on userprofile information.

At step 1535, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may analyze the conversation between the first user and thesecond user. The analysis of the conversation may include parsing thewords of the conversation. The words of the conversation may beidentified by grammatical elements, such as pronouns or names. The wordsof the conversation may be identified as nouns that may representcategories of media or cast members. In another example, the words ofthe conversation may be identified to detect positive and negativewords, as well as deferential terms. The conversation may also beanalyzed and compared to voice pattern profiles to identify therespective speakers.

The analysis of the conversation may be used as a basis for adjusting,at step 1540, the first weight and the second weight for the first userand the second user, respectively. The adjustment may be performed bythe control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application toprioritize comments spoken by the users. The weights of each of theusers may be increased or decreased based on relevance and priority ofthe users so that the media guidance application can update searchresults using comments spoken by the user having the higher weight. Theweights for each respective user may be stored in a user profile by thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application.

At step 1545, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may determine which of the first weight and the secondweight is greater. The greater of the two weights may be an indicationof which user has a higher priority.

Thus, at step 1550, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may select words spoken by the first user or the seconduser, based on the determined greater respective weight.

At step 1555, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may perform a second search to update the initial set ofsearch results. The second search for a media asset may be based on thefirst search results and the selected words. Rather than use all of thecomments in the conversation by the user having the greatest weight, thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may updatesearch results using only comments made by a viewer deemed to havegreater priority or weight. The words selected by the control circuitry1204 for the media guidance application from those spoken by the userhaving the determined greater weight may be all of the words spoken bythe user. In such case a natural language query may be performed by thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application together withthe original search criteria for the first set of results to yield anupdated set of search results. In another example, only certain commentsmade by the viewer having the greater weight, may be used for updatingthe search results. In this example, the comments may be selected whenthe words of the speaker are parsed and determined to have somerelevance to media assets, generally, or have relevance to the initialsearch results and/or associated metadata for the initial searchresults. In some scenarios, words or comments made by the speaker havinga lesser weight may be included in a search as a further filter of thesearch results that were based on the comments of the speaker having thegreater weight to refine such search results to be relevant to bothusers. In some scenarios when the words or comments used from a speakerhaving a lesser weight are used in a search, the words selected in suchsearch may be those that are related to the search or prior iterationsof sets of search results. As sets of search results are obtained by thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application, each may befiltered and ranked in an order that may be based on one or both of thespeakers in the conversation. In some scenarios, the control circuitry1204 for the media guidance application may reference a database for aglossary of media related terms, such as popular movies, genres, actors,as well as positive or negative terminology that may be relevant tomedia search. Such database may be updated and identifiers added for therespective users to build artificial intelligence for improving searchresult quality.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 15 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 15 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 12-13 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 15.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1600 forweighting a viewer for updating search results based on a conversationin accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should benoted that process 1600 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 12-13. For example,process 1600 may be executed by control circuitry 1204 (FIG. 12) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on a user device(e.g., user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG. 13)) topresent updated search results. In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1600 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment described herein.

A word or words from a conversation about search results may be selectedbased on a weight for a user or speaker of the words. Determining aweight for a user, and adjusting the user's weight may be performedaccording to the process 1600 depicted in the flowchart shown in FIG.16. A home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may be used to detecta conversation about search results. A voice pattern sample for eachparticipant in the conversation may be overheard by the home assistantdevice (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)). At step 1605, control circuitry 1204 for amedia guidance application may be used to match in a voice patternprofile database, a first voice pattern for a first user and a secondvoice pattern for a second user. The voice pattern profile database mayinclude voice pattern information that may be established by a userusing an audio capable device.

At step 1610, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may identify the first user based on a first profileassociated with the matched first voice pattern profile. Theidentification of the first user based on a first profile may beperformed, for example, using voice pattern matching techniques. In somescenarios, if there is no matching profile for a user, the controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may create a newprofile for the user that may be used to build a user history andpreference profile.

At step 1615, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may identify the second user based on a second profileassociated with the matched second voice pattern profile. Theidentification of the second user based on a second profile may beperformed, for example, using voice pattern matching techniques. In somescenarios, if there is no matching profile for a user, the controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may create a newprofile for the user that may be used to build a user history andpreference profile.

At step 1620, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may determine the first weight based on the first profile.The first weight may be based on a baseline number that may be changedbased on user history and interactions with a media system. In the eventthat the user profile is new and lacks information for determining afirst weight, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may establish a baseline weight for any new user.

At step 1625, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may determine the second weight based on the second profile.The second weight may be based on a baseline number that may be changedbased on user history and interactions with a media system. In the eventthat the user profile is new and lacks information for determining asecond weight, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may establish a baseline weight for any new user.

The first weight and the second weight determined at steps 1620 and1625, respectively, may be assigned by the control circuitry 1204 forthe media guidance application at step 1630 to the first user and thesecond user, respectively. The assignment of the weights may be made andcached so that the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may keep track of prioritizing the users in theconversation.

As a conversation between the users continues, a home assistant device(130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may be activated to listen to the conversation, ormay passively listen to the conversation to identify comments that arerelevant to media search results. As the home assistant device (130 or140 (FIG. 1)) listens to the conversation, the content of theconversation may be processed and analyzed with the control circuitry1204 for the media guidance application to detect, at step 1635, a needto adjust a weight for one of the users in the conversation. In anexample, a media guidance application may detect that a conversation mayinclude names or pronouns which may indicate that one of the users isdeferring a choice to the other of the users. In another example, amedia guidance application may detect that a comment by one of the usersis related to the search results. In such scenarios, that user's weightmay increase. In another example, a media guidance application maydetect that one user's comments are positive or negative, which maycause that user's weight to change. In yet another example, a mediaguidance application may detect that one user's comments are related toa prior iteration of search results, and that may cause the user'sweight to be changed. These and other examples are also discussed withreference to FIG. 17.

If there are no comments in the conversation that indicate that a user'sweighting should be changed, then the process may return to step 1630where a weight is assigned to a user and it remains the same. If thereare comments detected that indicate that a weight of a user should beadjusted, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance applicationmay update the weight for the respective user at step 1640.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 16 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 16 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 12-13 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 16.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1700 foradjusting a weight for a user for updating search results based on aconversation in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Itshould be noted that process 1700 or any step thereof could be performedon, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 12-13. Forexample, process 1700 may be executed by control circuitry 1204 (FIG.12) as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on a userdevice (e.g., user equipment devices 1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG. 13))to present updated search results. In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1700 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 17 depicts a process 1700 for adjusting a weight of a user. Theweight of the user may be used as a basis for selecting comments by theuser in a conversation about search results. The highest weighted userin the conversation may have his or her comments selected to use inupdating the search results. Of course, as the conversation continues,the weighting of the users may change so that comments by one or theother user may be prioritized by a media guidance application for use inupdating search results. Process 1700 may begin at step 1705 wherecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may parse eachword in the conversation to identify a part of speech for the word. Theparsing and analysis of the words in the conversation may be performedusing language analysis techniques, for example, using speechrecognition applications, dictionaries, and other suitable resources.

At step 1710, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may determine whether any of the parsed words are pronouns.Pronouns may be identified using speech recognition techniques and adictionary of pronouns. In addition, names for the user and user friendsmay be available in a user profile for the control circuitry 1204 forthe media guidance application to reference. The use of a pronoun or aname of an individual in a conversation may be an indicator that oneperson in the conversation wishes that the other person makes a decisionabout the search results.

If a pronoun or name is detected in the parsed words in theconversation, at step 1715, the control circuitry 1204 for the mediaguidance application may determine which of the users in theconversation is associated with the pronoun or name. The determinationat step 1715 may be made by referencing a user profile for nameinformation, or by using a temporary cached profile associated with a,“user 1” and, “user 2” in a conversation.

At step 1720, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may adjust the weight for the respective user. Such weightmay be stored in a user profile for reference by the control circuitry1204 for the media guidance application.

If there are no pronouns detected in the parsed words of theconversation, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may continue to analyze the conversation terms. At step1725, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application maycompare the parsed words with a user preference profile to identify amatch or any overlap. If, for example, a user makes a comment such as,“I like that actor,” or, “No, let's watch a comedy,” such comments maymatch a user preference profile which may include a user history ofwatching comedies or media having a particular actor. In this example,since the user is making a comment about search results that alsooverlaps with the user's preferences, updating search results based onsuch comments may produce more interesting results for the user. Thus,if there are matching or overlapping comments with a user profile, theuser's weight may be adjusted at step 1720.

If however, the words in the conversation do not match a user profile,the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application maycontinue analyzing the parsed words at step 1730 and determine whetherany of the words in the conversation match a word associated with priorsearch result terms or metadata for prior search results. For example,if a user makes a comment about prior search results or actors or othermetadata points about the prior search results, that user's comments maybe considered to be more relevant to the search results. Accordingly,that user's weight may be adjusted at step 1720 to be relativelygreater.

If however, the words in the conversation are not related to the searchresults or prior search results, or metadata for any of the searchresults, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance applicationmay continue analyzing the parsed words. At step 1735, the controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may determine whetherany of the words in the conversation negative or positive. In general,negative terms may be considered to be less helpful than positive ones.In some scenarios, however, a user may wish to establish a setting wherenegative terms take priority. For example, if one user says, “Nodocumentaries,” such comment may have some priority or at least remove asubset of search results. Such comments may also be used to affect asearch trail of search results that may be shown with sets of searchresults. If negative or positive words are detected at step 1735, thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may update therespective user's weight at step 1720.

If however, the words in the conversation are not deemed to be positiveor negative, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may continue analyzing the parsed words. At step 1740, thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may determinewhether any of the parsed terms are considered to be deferential. Ashortlist of deferential terms and phrases may be referenced by thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application. Deferentialterms or phrases may be an indicator of one user wishing to handoff achoice about a media selection to another user. Thus, if deferentialterms are detected, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may adjust the weight of the other user to whom the choicemay be deferred at step 1720.

If however, the terms or phrases in the conversation are not deemed tobe deferential, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may continue analyzing the parsed words. At step 1745, thecontrol circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may determinewhether any of the participants in the conversation are minors. Thedetermination at step 1745 may include referring to a user profile, suchas a family profile setting, and via use of voice pattern information.In some scenarios, a minor may be given a lesser weight at step 1720.Such weight may be established in settings so that a parent may alwayshave priority in updating search results. In another scenario, the minormay have an associated higher weight. Such settings for a minor may bebypassed or specifically established through family control settings.

The adjusted weight at step 1720 may be used in connection withselecting terms by a certain speaker in a conversation for use inupdating search results as described herein. The steps of process 1700may be repeated as a conversation continues about iterations of mediasearch results. The steps of process 1700 may also be performed in anyorder, and some steps may be optional.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 17 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 17 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 12-13 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 17.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1800 forupdating search results based on a conversation in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1800 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 12-13. For example, process 1800 may be executedby control circuitry 1204 (FIG. 12) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices1302, 1304, and/or 1306 (FIG. 13)) to present updated search results. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1800 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodimentdescribed herein.

Search results for a media item may be updated based on a conversationbetween users. The search results may be updated periodically based onthe conversation, or based on conversation elements. In addition, searchresults may be refined based on user preference profiles and viewinghistory. Update settings may be selected by a user in a user profile, ora media guidance application may perform the search result updates on abenchmark schedule. FIG. 18 depicts a process 1800 that may be followedfor iterating search results based on a conversation between users.

At step 1805, control circuitry 1204 for a media guidance applicationmay be used to generate a display of an updated set of search results,in particular a second display of a set of second search results. Thesecond search results may be generated based on a first set of searchresults and selected comments from a conversation between usersfollowing a first display of first search results.

At step 1810, a home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may detect asecond conversation between the first user and the second user that maybe shared, via control circuitry, with the media guidance application.The second conversation may be about the display of second searchresults. The home assistant device (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may beactivated to facilitate a search result update. The home assistantdevice (130 or 140 (FIG. 1)) may also be passively listening for suchcomments and instructions as well.

At step 1815, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may analyze the words of the second conversation. The wordsof the second conversation may be analyzed using language processing andspeech recognition techniques. Certain words may be recognized as beingsignificant or instructive, and a speaker of such words may beprioritized so that those words may be used to update the second searchresults. Significant or instructive words may be stored in a glossaryand referred to by the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication. Some examples of instructive words and phrases can be,“more like this,”, “I love that actor,”, “less_(genres)_” or other mediarelated phrases. In addition, a glossary of helpful media relatedterminology may also be built and referred to by the control circuitry1204 for the media guidance application. Such glossary may include mediacategories, media metadata information, and be periodically updated toinclude best or most popular media information. In addition to theglossary, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance applicationmay also refer to a user profile for terminology that may be importantto a user. In another example, the control circuitry 1204 for the mediaguidance application may compare the initial search result terms andassociated metadata with the conversation words to identify relevant andimportant words that may be suitable for updating the search results. Inaddition, the search results display may include a search trail whichmay have options that can be removed or added based on the conversationso that the users can access earlier sets of search results or bases forthe search results to refine a following search. Options for saving,moving forward and backward, undoing additions and removals and othersuitable options may be provided in the search results display by themedia guidance application and accessed using input devices and audiocues. Options in the search trail may be activated based on the userconversations that may be monitored by a home assistant. The controlcircuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may reference theglossary in a database of media related terminology which may be updatedwith user related selections to improve the quality of the searchresults.

At step 1820, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may readjust, based on the second conversation between thefirst user and the second user, the first weight and the second weightfor the respective first user and second user.

At step 1825, the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidanceapplication may perform a third search for a media asset based onselected words from the second conversation, the first search, and thesecond search. The words from the second conversation may be selectedbased on a weight of the speaker that may have been readjusted at step1820.

The search results may continue to be updated as a conversationcontinues, and as search results are updated in a display. At step 1830,the control circuitry 1204 for the media guidance application may repeata search for the media asset based on a further conversation. Suchsearch may also be further refined by ranking and filtering sets ofsearch results using user preferences. In some scenarios, the rankingand filtering may be based on user preferences for a non-prioritizedviewer so that the search results are presented in a manner that may beinteresting and useful to both viewers.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 18 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 18 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 12-13 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 18.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for modifying search results for a mediaasset based on a conversation between users, the method comprising:receiving, at control circuitry, a search request from a first user; inresponse to receiving the search request, performing, using the controlcircuitry, a search for a media asset in a media database based on thesearch request; generating, using the control circuitry, a first displayof a set of first search results; detecting, using the controlcircuitry, a conversation between the first user and a second user;determining, using the control circuitry, a first weight for the firstuser, and a second weight for the second user; analyzing, using thecontrol circuitry, the conversation between the first user and thesecond user; adjusting, using the control circuitry, based on theconversation between the first user and the second user, the firstweight and the second weight; determining, using the control circuitry,which of the first weight and the second weight is greater; selecting,using the control circuitry, words spoken by the first user or thesecond user, based on the determined greater respective weight; andperforming, using the control circuitry, a second search for a mediaasset based on the first search results and the selected words.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein determining, using the control circuitry, afirst weight for the first user, and a second weight for the second usercomprises: matching in a voice pattern profile database, a first voicepattern for the first user and a second voice pattern for the seconduser; identifying the first user based on a first profile associatedwith the matched first voice pattern profile; identifying the seconduser based on a second profile associated with the matched second voicepattern profile; determining the first weight based on the firstprofile; and determining the second weight based on the second profile.3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: comparing, using thecontrol circuitry, words spoken in the conversation between the firstuser and the second user with a preference profile for the first userand the second user; detecting, using the control circuitry, a matchbetween a word spoken in the conversation and a preference profile forthe first user or the second user; and increasing the respective weightfor the first user or the second user based on a matching word.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein analyzing, using the control circuitry, theconversation between the first user and the second user, furthercomprises: parsing each word in the conversation to identify a part ofspeech for the word; detecting, among the parsed words in theconversation, a pronoun; determining which of the first user and thesecond user is associated with the pronoun; and adjusting the respectiveweight for the first user or the second user based on the determinationof association with the pronoun.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinanalyzing, using the control circuitry, the conversation between thefirst user and the second user further comprises: comparing each word inthe conversation with the first search result terms and metadataassociated with the first search results; determining a matching wordamong the compared words in the conversation and the first searchresults terms and metadata associated with the first search results;determining which of the first user or the second user spoke thematching word, based on a respective voice profile; and adjusting thefirst weight or the second weight, based on the determined speaker ofthe matching word.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing, usingthe control circuitry, the conversation between the first user and thesecond user, further comprises: parsing each word in the conversation toidentify a negative or a positive word; for an identified negative wordin the conversation; determining which of the first user or the seconduser spoke the identified negative word, based on a respective voiceprofile; and adjusting the respective weight for the determined speakerof the identified negative word.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: generating, using the control circuitry, a second display ofa set of second search results; detecting, using the control circuitry,a second conversation between the first user and the second user;analyzing, using the control circuitry, the words of the secondconversation; readjusting, using the control circuitry, based on thesecond conversation between the first user and the second user, thefirst weight and the second weight; and performing a third search for amedia asset based on selected words in the second conversation, thefirst search, and the second search.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereinselecting the words used to perform the third search comprises: parsingeach word in the second conversation; detecting, among the parsed words,a deferential word; identifying, using the control circuitry; the firstuser as speaker of the deferential word based on a respective voicepattern profile; and selecting words spoken by the second user in thesecond conversation.
 9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:ranking, using the control circuitry, the set of second search resultsin an order ranked based on a preference profile for the first user orthe second user.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:initiating, using the control circuitry, a home assistant device tomonitor the conversation between the first user and the second user fora period, wherein the home assistant device is selected based on itsproximity to the display of the first search results and proximity tothe first user and the second user.
 11. A system for modifying searchresults for a media asset based on a conversation between users, thesystem comprising: input/output (I/O) interface circuitry configured toreceive a user input; and control circuitry configured to: receive asearch request from a first user; in response to receiving the searchrequest, perform a search for a media asset in a media database based onthe search request; generate a first display of a set of first searchresults; detect a conversation between the first user and a second user;determine a first weight for the first user, and a second weight for thesecond user; analyze the conversation between the first user and thesecond user; adjust, based on the conversation between the first userand the second user, the first weight and the second weight; determinewhich of the first weight and the second weight is greater; select wordsspoken by the first user or the second user, based on the determinedgreater respective weight; and perform a second search for a media assetbased on the first search results and the selected words.
 12. The systemof claim 11, wherein the control circuitry configured to determine afirst weight for the first user, and a second weight for the second useris further configured to: match in a voice pattern profile database, afirst voice pattern for the first user and a second voice pattern forthe second user; identify the first user based on a first profileassociated with the matched first voice pattern profile; identify thesecond user based on a second profile associated with the matched secondvoice pattern profile; determine the first weight based on the firstprofile; and determine the second weight based on the second profile.13. The system of claim 12 wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: compare words spoken in the conversation between thefirst user and the second user with a preference profile for the firstuser and the second user; detect a match between a word spoken in theconversation and a preference profile for the first user or the seconduser; and increase the respective weight for the first user or thesecond user based on a matching word.
 14. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry configured to analyze the conversationbetween the first user and the second user, is further configured to:parse each word in the conversation to identify a part of speech for theword; detect among the parsed words in the conversation, a pronoun;determine which of the first user and the second user is associated withthe pronoun; and adjust the respective weight for the first user or thesecond user based on the determination of association with the pronoun.15. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry configured toanalyze the conversation between the first user and the second user, isfurther configured to: compare each word in the conversation with thefirst search result terms and metadata associated with the first searchresults; determine a matching word among the compared words in theconversation and the first search results terms and metadata associatedwith the first search results; determine which of the first user or thesecond user spoke the matching word, based on a respective voiceprofile; and adjust the first weight or the second weight, based on thedetermined speaker of the matching word.
 16. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry configured to analyze the conversationbetween the first user and the second user, is further configured to:parse each word in the conversation to identify a negative or a positiveword; for an identified negative word in the conversation; determinewhich of the first user or the second user spoke the identified negativeword, based on a respective voice profile; and adjust the respectiveweight for the determined speaker of the identified negative word. 17.The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: generate a second display of a set of second searchresults; detect a second conversation between the first user and thesecond user; analyze the words of the second conversation; readjustbased on the second conversation between the first user and the seconduser, the first weight and the second weight; and perform a third searchfor a media asset based on selected words in the second conversation,the first search, and the second search.
 18. The system of claim 17,wherein the control circuitry configured to perform the third search isfurther configured to: parse each word in the second conversation;detect, among the parsed words, a deferential word; identify the firstuser as speaker of the deferential word based on a respective voicepattern profile; and select words spoken by the second user in thesecond conversation.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the controlcircuitry further configured to: rank the set of second search resultsin an order ranked based on a preference profile for the first user orthe second user.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to: initiate a home assistant device tomonitor the conversation between the first user and the second user fora period, wherein the home assistant device is selected based on itsproximity to the display of the first search results and proximity tothe first user and the second user.